The Juicebox Cafe

Thanks for being a part of the beginning of Juicebox Café. My official site is finally up, and I hope that you will all continue to be regular visitors. Within the next few weeks, this location will no longer be active. To read more about the movies I see and the thoughts I have on them, please go to http://juiceboxcafe.com Hope to see you there !

Sincerely,

Riche

Creator of Juicebox Cafe

As most of us have heard the movie adaptation of the children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, has finally been released. After years of being in movie limbo and many setbacks, it seems to me that pretty much anyone, between the ages of 16-30, knows of and is excited for the release of this film. The movie, which was directed by Spike Jonze, a music video director turned movie director, and stars Max Records as the main character, Max, is a very ambitious move. The sheer fact that they attempted to turn a children’s' book with merely ten sentences into a one and a half hour movie is very risky. Also, since the first trailer was released months ago, the amount of hype for this film has been astronomical in proportion. Now that the movie has been out for a few weeks most of us have either seen or heard a lot about it; for those who haven't, here are some of my thoughts on Where the Wild Things Are.

The first thing that I noticed when the movie started was the irregular camera work for a “family” movie. A fair portion of the movie is filmed in the “handy cam” format. The handy cam camera work gives the movie more realism and makes you feel a little closer to the action. The way that the camera follows Max, the main character, as though you are actually running behind him, and the fact that when he is running, he isn't perfectly in the middle of the shot all the time definitely brings you into the movie on a more personal level. The first act in this movie is based in the real world around Max and his family. It shows us how lonely and troubled Max really is. They really seem to get the concept of a little boy who has no friends and how his emotional state is in this house where his mom is always busy with work and where his sister seems to care more about her friends than she does about him. The emotions and situation that Max is in really gets to you, and you feel for his character very quickly. Even if you do think that his character may have some anger problems, that fact is explained to you fairly quickly as his mom has had a divorce and seems to be dating other men again, and really, to a child, this is definitely a reason to be angry.

Once the movie really gets going, he goes into an imaginary world where giant monsters roam, and he is the king of them on their island. It starts to get a little darker and begins to have a lot of undertones, as well as and causing you to think about how each monster may relate to him and his emotions. The monsters seem to be different representations of himself and possibly his family. It becomes slightly confusing at some points, and this route definitely makes the film seem a lot more “artsy” than I expected for this supposed kids' movie. The movie, to me, seemed to have mixed “attitudes”, and by that, I mean that, at some points, I felt like this was a G-rated movie and others, more of an art film, and at some points I even felt like something dark and evil was happening (or that there was going to be a major twist coming, like a thriller or suspense film). While this approach isn't necessarily bad, it definitely makes it hard to really “get the film”, and does make it a little frustrating to watch at times.

The CGI and art direction of this movie is amazing. The suits for the monsters in the movie, created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, (which had done everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Dr. Dolittle) were incredibly realistic, and amazed me every second they were on screen. The really interesting part about the monster characters, and you can see this for yourself in some scenes, is that the monsters are real suits with some animatronics, but the faces are “CGI'd” in over the suits. The idea of doing this to get more realism from the monsters, as opposed to using CGI in entirety (and risking the actors ability to perform with only a green screen), is a great idea, and can almost be called a true success; however, there are a few scenes, mostly side shots of the monsters, where the faces do stand out, and you can plainly tell its computer animated. That said the animation and art direction was still really well done.

Overall, the fact that they have finally made and released a Where the Wild Things Are movie is amazing, and whether you really like the movie or not, this is definitely something to be thankful for. Having a director who has only made two or three films (which were all very arty dramatic films), and throw $100 million dollars at him to make a movie adaptation of a children's classic with only ten sentences is, to me, a sign that some of the studios are still willing to take a risk in these days of mass layoffs and budget cuts. This movie seems to aim more towards teenagers and adults, as it seems Jonze was trying to put so many undertones and different feelings into a movie with few laugh out loud moments, and probably isn't much of a movie for younger kids; however, this movie is incredibly well done. The realism of the monsters and the relationships between Max and the other characters in this movie is very interesting, and every set in this movie is so detailed that it really brings you into the world and makes you look closer and ask yourself questions, regarding underlying messages. I would definitely suggest to anyone who likes a little more of the artsy film genre, anyone who likes the art of film making, and of course ,anyone who likes the original book go see this movie or rent it when it comes out on DVD.

The time has come, yet again, for another remake of an old Japanese cartoon series; this time it’s Astro Boy. Astro Boy, which was initially created in the late 1950s, as a manga comic by Osamu Tezuka, was originally a live action television show that only ran for a few episodes before becoming the animated show, starting in 1963, and ran until ’66 in Japan and ’65 in America. The show went into syndication in the 70’s and 80’s. Around the turn of the century, it seemed it was time for an Astro boy reintroduction. First, in 1999, there was an announcement by Columbia Pictures and Jim Henson productions, stating that they were gearing up for a feature film; however, nothing ever came of that. Then in 2000, there were plans for a Japanese-Canadian IMAX co-production, but it was shelved fairly quickly for various reasons. Then, in 2003, to mark the 40^th anniversary of the Astro Boy series, a new Japanese animated show was created, and ran for fifty episodes---about a year in Japan and North America.

Finally, in 2009, we see the full length Astro Boy film we should have gotten years ago. The film, which was announced in 2006, is a CGI animated version of the Original Japanese animated series, and is done by Imagi Animation Studios---who also did the 2007 TMNT CGI film. While the film has much, if not all of, the original cast, redone beautifully in CGI, it also takes away from the nostalgia of watching an Astro boy movie, just by having it in CGI. If you can get past the fact that they did the movie all by computer, the movie is actually not too bad of a throw back to the original show. There is a lot in the movie to like, actually, besides the beautiful CGI shots and seeing the old characters brought back in a new light, the setting for the film is fairly believable. The movie takes place mainly in Metro City, which is actually built at the bottom of an old volcano and is suspended hundreds of feet in the air above the junk and waste filled earth. Apparently, years before, when the movie takes place, the residents of Metro City realize the earth is being overrun by garbage, so they find a way to rip up the volcano (and a large area around it) and float it in the air above all the pollution, in order to effectively create the last paradise city left.

While most of the characters and their respective voice actors do a great job in this movie, I definitely think that they could have chosen a better person to voice Astro’s father. Nicholas Cage’s voice is just not good at all for this character, it may be just the way that the audio was set up, but his voice was much louder than everyone else, and I found that he didn’t really give the character much emotional range. He spoke in a relatively monotone voice the whole time, the only variance being the raising or lowering of the volume of his voice. The movie definitely offers a few laugh-out-loud moments (Ass Canons) and a few heart jerking moments as well, and I found myself wanting to know more about certain characters and rooting for them. Overall, the movie somehow fell short of my expectations of a newly invigorated Astro Boy franchise. The fact that they left it wide open for a sequel is, to me, kind of expected but somehow not unlinked. I think that this movie is a good move; it may not bring anything new to the CGI animated film or the Astro Boy series in general, but it is a fun ride, and it’s always nice to see a familiar character from our childhoods back in the spot light.

While you may not want to rush out and see this in the theatre, I think that this would definitely be a good rental when it comes out on Bluray and DVD. With the mild success of this film, the fact that they didn’t do such a bad job and that they left it open to a second film gives me hope that the next one will not only have a little more action and less of back story, but also that maybe the next one will be the one that brings Astro Boy back into the mainstream again where he once was and still belongs.

So we all know that bluray is the new generation DVD, but do we know what it offers. Well I’m going to explain some of the bonuses that I have noticed in my quickly growing bluray collection. First off let me explain what a bluray disc is. Bluray discs are an optical disc storage medium designed to succeed the standard DVD format. Its main uses are for storing high-definition video and PlayStation 3 games, with up to 25 GB for a single layered, and 50 GB for dual layered discs. The name Blu-ray Disc comes from the blue laser used to read the disc, while a standard DVD uses red laser. During the format war over high-definition optical discs, bluray competed with the HD DVD format. Toshiba, was the main company supporting HD DVD, and gave in to bluray in February 2008, and the format war ended in July 2009.

Now that we know what a bluray disc is and can do let’s discuss some of the bonuses over regular DVD’s. The first thing is of course the overall quality and picture of the film that can be displayed. Bluray discs can display films at up to 1080p/I, meaning 1080 lines of pixels versus the DVD’s measly 480 lines. So right away, assuming you have an HDTV, the picture is much sharper, cleaner and crisper than a regular DVD. The quality of the film can be so crisp and perfect as to even ruin some movies and scenes as you can see every little detain and imperfection. An example I have run across is Nightmare Before Christmas, where since the movie is all claymation and strings you can see everything from all the lines and possible fingerprints in the characters and backgrounds to the strings used for things like bats flying against a moonlit sky.

The other major advantage to blurays over regular DVDs is the extras. Now I know that the majority of the public does not really watch the extras, documentaries and listen to the commentaries but the amount of extras they can fit on a bluray is amazing. First off all bluray movies have a in movie menu, meaning that anytime during the movie you can pop up the menu and select any special feature scene or change setting without even stopping or pausing the movie. Some movies like Get smart include special ways of viewing the film, in get smart you can watch the movie with all of the deleted scenes and alternate scenes and lines input into the movie where they would have been. So instead of watching the special features and just seeing the deleted scene by itself with no context to how they got where they are the scene is placed into the film so as you watch an icon pops onscreen and it instantaneously switches through all the lines or different scenes they filmed as the movie plays. Another great EXAMPLE WOULD BE National Treasure, on the bluray it comes with a version of the film that you watch and as you go along the movie it pops up with question about the film or the history that they are talking about, like is that thing they just said fact or fiction or is that character based on a real person as well As actual facts about real history surrounding certain things and places in the film.

One final bonus of buying the blurays over regular DVD is that older films and most movies preleased on regular DVD get a thorough cleaning and resizing. Examples of this would be the Wizard of oz, the movie will be released on bluray on September 29^th has undergone extensive cleaning and recoloring to make the movie look as bright and colorful as the day it was made. Older films especially fall into this category since celluloid film slowly breaks down overtime and loses its color. So when the master is made into a DVD originally, every release is done from a master of that original celluloid which usually has not been cleaned properly. However for bluray, most of the older and more successful films get an incredible amount of cleaning and attention to every detail before it is transferred over bluray. For instance the wizard of oz was painstakingly gone over frame by frame and each individual frame was cleaned top to bottom to make sure the transfer is perfect and the color is brought back to the film.

One of the big misconceptions of bluray movies is that they are too expensive to buy both movies and the players themselves. This is not fully true anymore. Not only do most of the major electronic retailers now has bluray players starting from just over $100 the Placation 3, which has been one of the best bluray players on the market since the conception of the format, has recently had a makeover and a price drop. The movies themselves while slowly coming down in price as more and more people adopt the format and buy blurays are now in the range of $20-30 for most titles depending on the retailer, which is actually where DVDs where a few years ago anyway. The real secret to buying blurays is the used marketplace. Now I know what your thinking, used discs are scratched and will not work properly. However bluray discs are actually coated will a special chemical to prevent scratching much like that of prescription glasses. Places like eBay, kijiji and usedottawa.com are great places to find deals on blurays. I myself browse these sites often to look for new movies and most of the discs I have bought have been from such sites and haven’t cost more than $14 which is relatively the same price as a regular DVD anyway.

I think one of the biggest problems with bluray right now other than the price is the fact that technology has been advancing at such a rate that a lot of people are scared to adopt a new format for fear that a new will likely come out in the near future. While that is more than likely I personally don’t see the bluray being replaced for at least five years and really the next leap unless its virtual reality won’t really be such a leap as to need to abandon the bluray. If you have a bluray player and an HDTV you can still use and buy them. Companies won’t stop making blurays when they come out with a new format just like they still make regular DVDs. More than likely when the time does come for a new format they will kill of the original DVD and bluray will become the “lower” and “cheaper” format thus making it more accessible to the masses anyway. I think that anybody who really loves the movie experience should go and check out the difference that bluray offers. After all the more people adopt the format the cheaper the movies and players become.

Alas, the time has finally come for the new Stargate television series, dubbed Stargate Universe. It premiered on SyFy with a glorious two-hour episode. Thinking back to Comic-con, when they showed the first trailer for the show, my initial reaction was far from good. I thought that it was going to be to the Stargate franchise what Enterprise was to Star Trek: the end. It appeared all too much to be a meshing of Stargate: Atlantis and Star Trek: Voyager; however, after watching the first episode, twice, back-to-back, I must admit that I really like this show, and think that the concept is pretty cool and expands on the already brilliantly conceived universe of Stargate.

The show starts off on an ancient ship, shortly after their arrival, and then flits back and forth in flashbacks to explain how they got to the ship. The show does a really good job of showing the panic, fear, and frustration that the survivors had were dealing with when first getting through the Stargate to the ancient ship, and it really makes you feel for them. It helps you connect with the characters too. One of the better characters in the show is Eli, played by David Blue. The character was brought into the Stargate program after playing an online game, Prometheus, and solving a very complicated mathematical problem, which was input into the game by the government to help dial the Ninth Chevron, or gate address, that leads them to the ancient ship and the other side of the universe. Eli is responsible for the majority of the show’s comic relief, and he does a wonderful job. Being just a regular guy in his mid twenties, having been thrust into this world where aliens exist and a Stargate can take you instantaneously to other worlds, he still clings to what he knows or thinks things should be like. He is however extremely smart and adaptable, and becomes a valuable member of the team. One of the other notable characters is Dr. Rush, played by Robert Carlyle. Doctor Rush is the shows resident genius the Mckay or the Carter type character, if you will.

The CG in the show, once again, is done fairly well and shows much improvement since SG1 and Atlantis. While you don’t get much scale of the ship, more than one or two quick zoom shots, it is done really well. Also, as in SG: Atlantis, the crewmembers are only occupying a fraction of the ship at the beginning, thus leaving vast opportunities for exploration and discovery on the ship itself, and not solely on the other planets they jump to through the gate. Moreover, the fact that they are seventy billion light years from earth leaves a large amount of creative freedom for the writers and art directors of the show.

I believe this show will be very successful if the story’s momentum is kept steady from the first episode. This, to me, is a worthy successor to the Stargate franchise, even if I did believe it would be the end of all Stargate shows as we knew them. I am very excited for the next episode of this show, as it is one of the only space-based, sci-fi programs running that is worth watching, and would recommend to anyone who likes any of the Stargate or Star Trek programming to give this a look. It has a lot of potential, and has some surprisingly good acting for a Stargate TV show.

In the past few years digital 3D has undergone a few advanced in technology and has begun to become popular with the general movie going audience again. With 3D films making money again a few companies have promised numerous 3d films in development. One of these companies is Disney/Pixar. Disney came out a few years ago and made a statement saying that all further Pixar movie would be released in 3D. Their tenth full length theatrical release, UP, was the first Pixar movie to be released in 3D and was very financially successful.

The newest, and I used the term newest loosely, film or films to be released in 3D from Pixar is a double feature of Toy Story 1 & 2 for two weeks only starting October 2, 2009. These two movies, two of Pixar’s most popular films, were released in 95’ and 99’ so not new in that sense. However the two movies were not originally made for 3D so turning the movies into 3D involved going back the original computer data and virtually placing a second camera into each scene, creating left eye and right eye views needed to create the illusion of depth. But if you ask me when the animators went back to add the second camera they also cleaned up and perfected the already gorgeous films.

When the original toy story came out I saw it in theatres and over the years have seen it and Toy Story 2 many times on DVD, TV and the internet. After being in the theatre for the double feature for even just the first few scenes I noticed that the movie seemed much cleaner, more crisp and even the textures and patterns seems more noticeable and detailed, not unlike comparing a regular DVD to a Bluray movie. Seeing both of these movies many times I did not go for the story, as I almost know it off by heart, but went for the 3D effects and the possibility of noticing the little details the animators put into the world itself. The tree, the roads, the wood on the shelves and especially the inner and under workings of vehicles is incredible. The dirt, grain of different woods, rust on certain objects and even the patterns on carpets and curtains helps bring more realism to the movies and it all looked to me like they had upscaled the quality of the film, though it could also be attributed to the newer film projectors now installed in movie theatres as well.

In the end though it comes down to the 3D effects and to be honest it wasn’t as cool as I thought it would be. Since the movies were never really made for 3D the camera angles and the scenes to not take much advantage of 3D. For the most part what you get out of the 3D effects in these movies is a defined sense of depth and scale. There are definitely a few scenes in each of the movie where it almost seems like that scene was made for 3D, the intro of the second movie for instance was one of the best part visually for the 3D effects. Though there may not be objects flying at you or waving in front of your eyes in every scene the depth and scale you get from the 3D is more than enough reason to see these two classic award winning movies.